Author: Ian Osgood
Date: 09:16:16 12/06/00
Go up one level in this thread
On December 06, 2000 at 04:33:42, Claudio Duarte wrote: >Hi, > >Do you know if Novag is planning something new to replace Sapphire II? They were (before the buyout). There were even screenshots. The Star Sapphire was going to look a lot like a Palm organizer, and have a slightly faster processor. No idea whether the program was updated. >Considering calculator style chess computers, is Sapphire II the best option >currently available? Yes. Programs running on fast (200MHz) PDA's might give the Sapphire II (32 MHz) a run for its money, though I have seen no test results and the cost would be higher. If strength is not paramount, consider a cheap Palm plus either PocketChess or ChessGenius. You gain a backlit touchscreen chessboard, instead of an "e1-g1" move display. >Is playing really strong softwares - ie, Hiarcs 7.32 - on a calculator style >computer chess still a dream ? Yes. The market is not strong enough to sink extra development into this. The one professional program for a PDA (Lang's ChessGenius for the Palm) makes use of an existing engine (Roma from 1983). My tests showed it to be weaker than the Sapphire II (though comparable). Note that it is not simple to port a program designed and tuned for a desktop computer (>200Mz, lots of RAM for hash tables, lots of disk space for openings and endgame tables, target market only has to buy the software) back onto a battery operated handheld (slow, neither memory nor storage to speak of; if dedicated, the buyer is paying for custom hardware and software). One exception: if a Linux palmtop is ever developed, then there would be the possibility of running many free programs on it. Increased processor speed may make up for the weakness of the free programs. >I've heard that Novag's ownership has changed. Is that correct? and have they >developed a new Web page? Yes. No new page. No plans for a new model before Xmas. >Regards, Claudio. Ian
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.